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(N0 ModeL) F. BILLINGS & W. R. HINSDALE. PROCESS OF CASTING METAL INGOTS.

Patented June 9, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK BILLINGS, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, AND WILLIAM R. HINSDALE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

PROCESS OF CASTING METAL INGOTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 319,779, dated June 9, 1885.

Application filed February 11, 1885.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, FRANK BILLINGS, residing at Cleveland, Ouyahoga county, Ohio, and WILLIAM R. HINSDALE, residing at Brooklyn, Kings county, New York, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes for Casting Metal Ingots, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings,forming a part of the same.

The object of this invention is to transfer the fluid steel from a ladle or other receptacle to the interior of the mold in the presence of the atmosphere acting under its ordinary pressure,without any separation of the fluid particles, and without any admixture of the air therewith 5 and our improved processes are intended to obviate the use of all means for exhausting the air from the mold, the ladle, or any intervening duct, and to employ the ordinary action of gravity in transferring the metal from the ladle to the mold,wl1ile avoiding the disturbances to which the uncontrolled influence of gravity is liable to expose the metal.

Our invention consists, primarily, in drawing the metal into the mold in distinction from pouring it therein. This method we employ because the metal when poured either through the open air or through a closed duct subject to atmospheric pressure is liable to have its particles separated in their descent by the accelerating force of gravity,and to thus draw the atmosphere into contact with the separated particles and to mix the same intimately therewith. If the use of exhausting apparatus be excluded, such access of the air to the separated particles may be prevented in a closed duct, but is liable, and indeed certain, to occur as soon as the metal enters the mold, and our improvements are intended both to prevent the separation of such particles and the mingling of the air therewith.

To draw the metal into the mold without the presence of air and without the use of ex hausting apparatus,we increase the capacity of the mold during the introduction of the metal thereto, making the access of the metal depend (No model.)

exclusively upon such enlargement, and thus regulating the flow in all cases, so that all the particles of the fluid metal move at a slower rate than that due to the uncontrolled action of gravity.

We are aware of United States Patent N o. 253,176,in which the metal is poured from an open ladle through the atmosphere into the mouth of the mold having a falling bottom, and that the capacity of such mold is intended by the inventor to be increased substantially at the same rate in which the metal is sup- 6o plied to the mold; but our invention differs from this in two essential particularsfirst,we draw the metal into the mold instead of pouring it, thereby avoiding the fall of the metal in contact with the atmosphere and the carrying of air into the metal within the mold by the descending current; and, secondly, in enlarging the mold in the exact ratio in which the metal is admitted, (and which is impossible with the means described in the said Patent No. 253,176,) and thereby avoid the production of any vacuity within the mold into which air might be admitted. Our invention therefore includes a means of regulating the influx of the metal to the mold in the exact rate at which the capacity of the mold is enlarged.

To illustrate our invention, two different means for carrying the same into operation are shown herein.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a section of an apparatus having a mold temporarily joined to the bottom ofa ladle, and connected with means for raising and lowering it, so as to slide it up and down upon a'stationary plug, which serves as a bottom for the mold during and at 8 the close of thepouring operation; and Fig. 2 is a vertical section of a spout attached to the I bottom of a ladle and provided with a plunger fitted to the interior of a mold, so as to press upon the surface of the metal as it flows into 0 the same. In these independent constructions the mechanism operates the same, although the regulating means is applied in Fig. 1 to the bottom of the fluid metal in the mold and in Fig. 2 to the top of the fluid metal, the 5 action of the movable part being in both cases to preventthe access of the metal to the mold except at the prescribed rate. and in a'solid unbroken current.

Fig. 1 exhibits a central vertical sectionof a bed-plate, A, sustaining a false bottom, B,

,7 upon a column, 0, and of amold, D, having a g is a metal collar attached to the bottom of the ladle around the opening F to" guide the mold thereto.

h are bolts secured in the collar and. fitted through flanges 11 upon the head of the mold,

where they are secured by keys I, inserted. through slots in the bolts, so as to be readilyremoved when required.

J is the shell of the ladle, and J its refrac-. tory lining. The ladle is shown provided with a bail, k, to which is attached a hoisting-tackle, k, represented in the drawings as a pulleyand chain from a hoisting-crane.

J" is a fire-brick head, secured upon the false bottom B by bolts 1), so as to be readily removed at pleasure.

K are vertical guides attached to the bed A, and fitted to ears K upon the lower end of the mold to guide it when moved upward: When the false bottom is adjusted so as to close the aperture in the bottom of the ladle, the joint between the two may be packed with ganister or other suitable material, so that no; leakage will occur. 1

In operation the ladle is filled with molten: metal to a given point, which corresponds with the capacity of the mold, and it is obvious that by means of the tackle shown the ladle. and its attached mold may then be elevated, while the false bottom B remains stationary, and the metal thus be drawn into the mold without any injurious disturbance or exposure of the fluid current to the atmosphere. It is obvious that an instantaneous lifting of the ladle and mold would cause the metal to, fall violently into the latter, and to draw into the mold thereby a great deal of air, which; would be mingled with the broken particles of: the fluid current; and the successful operation of the invention therefore involves a proper? regulation of the speed with which the ladle is lifted, so as to transfer the metal to the mold without any separation of its particles suf-5 ficient to draw in the air.

With thisfapparatus, after filling the mold, it is held in its suspended position,with the false bottom B at its lower end sustaining its cooled to permit the detaching of the ladle by knocking out the keys Z, after which the ladle may be removed and the tackleapplie'd directly to support the mold and remove it with its contents from the column 0 and hot- .tomB. T-he"rhold is shown provided with bandsld, by-which its parts are held together, as is common with steel ingot molds, so that V themold may be removed from the ingot and replaced in the position shown in the drawings,and connected with the ladle for pouring another ingot, the metal being conducted to the ladle from the furnace by a suitable spout.

The other means of regulating the flow from the bottom of the ladle, and which operates to prevent the rupture of the fluid vein after the filling operation has commenced, is shown in Fig. 2, M being a mold formed with parallel bore, E the ladle, and N an outlet-pipe attached to the lower side of the ladle, and provided upon its lower end with an earthenware nozzle, .N,which is inserted in the mold and extended to-its bottom at the beginning of the pouring operation. The nozzle is pro- 'vided at its lower end with a plate or plunger, N, fitted loosely to the parallel bore of the mold, and the metal is therefore discharged into the mold between its bottom D and the plunger N, which latter is fitted to resist the heat of the metal by its refractory nature. A stopper, O worked by a handle,

'0, and vertical slide 0 fitted to the side of the ladle, is provided to retain the metal in the ladle until adjusted with the plunger N .in contact with the bottom of the mold. The

metal then first operates, when the valve or stopper is opened, to force the air in the nozzle before it and out of the mold around the edges of the loosely-fitting plunger N. The metal then gradually fills the space between the mold-bottom and the plunger, while the ladle is gradually lifted, the upward movement of the ladle being carefully regulated to avoid any disturbance of the fluid, and the metal in the nozzle and in the mold being effectually excluded from contact with the air. The amount of metal in the ladle is just proportioned to fill the mold, and the entire bulk of the metal may therefore be deposited in the mold without closing the stopper 0 or it is desired to fill a series of molds with the same casting of metal, it is, however, obvious that a ladle of sufficient capacity can be used and the nozzle can be successively applied to the separate molds, the stopper being closed in each case when the mold is filled.

Having thus set forth the nature and operation of our invention, what we claim herein pouring) the metal into the mold by a gradual enlargement of its internal capacity, substantially as herein shown and described. fluid contents, until the latter are sufficiently' rate that all the particles ofthe fluid metal move at a slower rate than that due to the unotherwise breaking the fluid current. Where 1. That process of filling an ingot-mold which consists in drawing (in distinction from controlled action of gravity, as and for the In testimony whereof we have hereunto set to purpose set forth. our hands in the presence of two subscribing 3. That process of filling an ingot-mold from witnesses. the bottom of a ladle which consists in unit- 5 ing the bottom of the ladle by apractically ALE airtight joint to the top of the mold, and gradually increasing the capacity of the mold as Witnesses: I

the metal is admitted, substantially as shown HENRY J. THEBERATH, and described. THOS. S. CRANE. 

